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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Stealing Focus

(BY FAR THE LONGEST POST ON MY BLOG AND I STILL FEEL AS
THOUGH I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO DELIVER All THAT I WANTED TO!)

Special Thanks to Karun Jamwal and Jay Shah.

This post is about some upcoming and really cool
photographers from in and around the neighborhood (and by 'neighborhood' of
course i mean the virtual neighborhood that we have created for ourselves in the name of social networking sites) For since when did we start having the time to know our actual neighbors, huh?

Anyhow, when I first started with this project - I thought, it’d be real
easy- I’d just choose three of their best shots and will take it from there-
what did I know that picking those three photographs was going to be a task of
a lifetime in itself –the further i looked the more mesmerized I got.

Faiyaz Hawawala

Faiyaz, what can I say, is JUST PLAIN TRANSPARENT.

You don’t have to know Faiyaz for long to know one thing about him that he does
not pretend. You can see right through him and it is rather endearing, a quality implicit in his work too.

I learnt
of Faiyaz through a common friend and I am really glad that I did. For not
only is Faiyaz a talented photographer but also his simplicity is his virtue.

Before
I finally sat down to write this post I had taken a lot of inputs from all of
these people but I ended up writing my own thing in the end- and this applies
to Faiyaz the most---- for once I read whatever he had to say about photography
and himself- I realised that he does not draw a line between the two.

Even
though it may be sub-conciously so – but such is his love for photography that
I don’t think he knows where Faiyaz 'the photographer' ends and Faiayz 'the human' begins. And I am not just saying it, but Faiyaz’s passion for photography moved me a great
deal. Another thing I liked about him is that just like me, he too loves snakes!

A student at Life and Light Academy in Ooty, Faiyaz has
grand plans for future and I am certain he will realise them too. Go ahead see for yourself!

“Its about perception, hard work, walking an extra mile, being more
creative and taking risks”, leaves
Faiyaz a message for other aspirants.

Nishant Verma

“Hey you take amazing photographs man!,’ I complimented
Nishant a couple of years ago and even before he could say thanks I added, ‘What
Camera is it?’

(In my defence- I am really not that dumb - so as to think
that a DSLR can actually confer talent on a baboon- it’s just that I was
planning to buy a camera at that time and was only doing my homework- so to say
the least my intention was totally right even though the timing wasn’t.)

Anyhow that was then - what did I know that not only was I
to become an ardent believer in his work but also that I was going to endorse
the very same.-

A communication professional, Nishant Verma took to
photography back in 2009, on his maiden trip to Ladakh as he fondly recalls. Talk
about accomplishments and he is fully loaded with several prestigious awards
and nominations in his backpack ( the word kitty doesn’t go with his butch and
burly frame J.) Some
of his work is scheduled to be exhibited at the Art Gallery of Alliance française
Chandigarh, for the month of Feburary. It may have started as a hobby but
Nishant is already neck deep in freelance projects and is willing to take
up assignments that are fun and fulfilling.

“Just take your time and Click
.. your 1st ten thousand shots will be your worst ..so don’t worry
... just cross that barrier.. Make a meaningful difference in People’s lives”,
he signs off.

Garima Singh

With
a smile brighter than the sunshine, trust Garima Singh to turn something super-mundane
into super- insane with just a click. An Architect by profession, she is only pursuing this as a
hobby as of now but let the right opportunity come along and who knows she
might just crank it up a notch.

Killer - innit? And you thought that it was going to be a girly-shirly picha! ;-)

(My personal favorite- even though I am a strict vegetarian)

Not that, Girly is too far away or something! Pretty, huh?

“Photography
to me is capturing a moment and making it last forever … It
remembers little things, long after you have forgotten
everything… Keep Clicking” says she.

Although we had been on each other’s facebook for quite some
time now but we never really had had a word. Until one day that he chose to
disagree with me on a certain blogpost- Yeah Yeah I know we are all entitled to
our opinions and all that but whatever I WAS SUPER PISSED okay. So I loaded my
pistol and went straight for Chetan Tiwari to see who this mai ka laal was after all (and by the
way by pistol I mean a pistol in shape of a keypad- which was loaded with words
instead of bullets)
Only to be more tongue tied than ever – with every single click I got more and more glued to the screen, so much so, that by the time I ended seeing the whole
collection- I had even forgotten why I was there in the first place. That is
the effect of Chetan’s photography on you.

Chetan works as a Quality Expert in Amdocs and he took to
photography only a couple of years ago but he definitely sees it becoming more
than just a hobby in the times to come.

“Everything beautiful might not last forever... but a photograph makes sure its memories last forever.” Chetan Tiwari.

Deepika Tomar

Although she was my junior at school but I actually met her some two years ago at a Holi Party – our friends had thrown in unison.

I walked in this huge hall filled with people
and saw this chicklet of a girl sitting by the corner and enjoying ‘Dum maaro
dum’ –( the Deepika Padukone one- it had just released) and I couldn’t help but
notice how much she was enjoying herself. Anyhow we got to talking and she
seemed real fun –we had a couple of shots-danced-laughed-ate and made merry and before we
knew the party was over and it was time to leave- so I came back home with a
happy holi memory.

What I did not know at that point of time was that this
“chicklet of a girl” was a rockstar in making- just a couple of days ago- I saw
her work and it may be stating the obvious- but I found it pretty very nice.

Not only is she talented but what makes her even better is that she is socially
aware and not too afraid to speak- just the right ingredients for the right
kind of a change maker.

Deepika is currently studying at National Institute of Creative Communications, Banglore.

Here are a couple of shots that I stole from her FB
account and also I feel obliged to mention here because she has specifically
asked me to (that these do not represent her best work- unfortunately the
situation was such that she could not mail me the pictures she actually wanted
here but still I think these are pretty very nice)

‘Dude tu kuch bhi kar but makkhi nahi chalegi.’ I told Chirag point blank as soon as I asked him to send along a couple of his unpublished shots. I had actually had it with
photographers and their true love for insects. Thanks to them, I had almost 12 mugshots of a makkhi and I did not want more. (And I am not even
talking about a makkhi that lays golden eggs or something – just a regular ordinary run-of-the-mill makhi) ObviouslyI was pissedAnd
no one else but Chirag had to bear the brunt.

(And even until now Chirag has no idea about what I am going to publish – but he trusted me and I liked that.)

Youngest of the lot, Chirag is very different from all the
others I have mentioned so far and if I were to define Chirag’s work- I’d say it
sort of has a "boyish charm" to it – see for yourself!

WINK WINK !

Chirag is studying direction and film making as of now and
seems determined to pursue photography as a career option.
Prod him on to leave
a message and he wraps it up gangnam style“ I started photographing with a simple
nokia mobile phone (5610), now i have one slr and one Dslr camera. I just want
to say, even if you have the world’s best equipment for photography and if you
don’t have the passion and dedication, you can never become a true photographer.”

@Karun - My pleasure- and thanks yet again for dis post wudnt have been half as much fun if nt for u!@Rajvi - Seriously that was the first picture that I had seen in his account and I just knew that he'd feature in here lol.@Anukool - tu mast hai- ek dum, U know Deepika Tomar already?